Well, the Cardiac Kids of Cobb County (and, no, I will not get all cutesy and spell those with K’s instead of C’s, thankewverimuch), almost pulled out another late inning comeback win, before falling to the Phightin’ Phillies in 11 5-4.
Mike Foltynewicz started for the Braves, and went five innings, giving up 3 runs, including solo shots to Rhys Hoskins in the second and Carlos Santana in the 5th. The third run came after Kurt Suzuki interefered with J.P. Crawford in the third, and Santana hit a sac fly to plate him.
The Phillies starter was Nicholas Pivetta, who sounds like he was conjured up from the feverish imagination of Niccolo Machiavelli. He only managed to go four innings before Phils manager Gabe Kapler, who in his first two games is determined to make Sparky Anderson roll over in his grave with the pitching changes, brought the hook. It would only be the 4th time in Phillies franchise history that 8 pitchers were used in the first nine innings. Anyone care to wager that number 5 won’t be tonight? I didn’t think so.
Atlanta tied it up at 2 in the bottom of the third, after a Dansby Swanson lead-off single, when Ryan Flaherty doubled him home. After Folty sac bunted him to third, Ender Inciarte hit his own sac fly.
In the bottom of the 4th, Swanson continued his good day at the plate, singling in Suzuki, who had been hit by a pitch in the hand, with two outs, to give the Braves a brief lead, until Santana went all Black Magic Woman on Folty in the 5th. Philly took the lead in the 6th when Aaron Altherr walked off Jose Ramirez, and was driven in with a 2 out single by Nick Williams. Lead off walks…grr.
Did I say lead off walks? Atlanta nabbed one of its own in the 8th, when Freddie Freeman drew his thrid of the evening (and is currently on pace for a season total of 486 free passes). Freddie went to third on a Nick Markakis groundout when no one covered the bag, and came in to score after Preston Tucker had his second game tying RBI in the 8th. Snitker sent in Peter Bourjos to pinch run and the Braves looked like they took the lead after Swanson’s third hit of the night, a screaming double to left, but Bourjos was called out after a video review. It appeared his lead leg bounced over the plate as the tag was applied. I couldn’t tell from the replay one way or the other, but the Braves didn’t squawk at all, so that must’ve been the right call.
Arodys Vizcaino mad it interesting in the 9th, but managed to wiggle off the hook, stranding Phillies at first and third by striking out Hoskins – who so far looks like he’s the second coming of Ryan Howard. So far he’s been crushing Braves pitching in his short career.
Shane Carle worked a clean 10th, but in the 11th, he gave up singles to Crawford, and Cesar Hernandez, and with one out Santana nailed the solo, with his second sac fly for a 5-4 lead.
And when you’re scheduled to send up Bourjos, Carle, and Flaherty in the bottom of the inning, you had a bad feeling about this. Carle had to hit because Suzuki went out after being hit in the hand, and Snitker had burned Lane Adams as a pinch hitter in the 7th inning. Bourjos stayed on for Tucker and Charlie Culberson (aka Evil Dansby) was switched in for Original Dansby after the 8th. Ahh, the joys of a four man bench. I have no idea why Snitker didn’t pinch hit one of the starters – say Julio Teheran – maybe he didn’t trust anyone left in the pen.
But, Atlanta improbably rallied a bit. With two out Flaherty hit one through the hole, and Culberson sold the home plate ump on a hit by pitch that didn’t appear to be, but again the Phillies didn’t squawk, so maybe I need better glasses. But Ender jumped on the first pitch and popped out to shallow center. And, that, as they say, was that.
Brandon McCarthy goes to the hill tonight against Vince Velasquez who sounds like he should be half of a tag team in the WWE.
The Painter paints, thank you.
Catcher problems. Leave Lucroy alone, bring up Contreras who is acknowledged to be defensively excellent. Why on earth not…be a little Brave.
Dansby terrific after an awful opening day, completely different level of contact. Good on yer, Dans.
The lovely Chelsea back home from hospital, hit by batted ball, damaged eye socket(TC).
We are dropping like ninepins.
Ozzie and Ender going 1-10 was the bigger issue, IMO. Also made it a lot easier for them to pitch around Freddie…who is on pace for 486 walks.
I really hope Suzuki is okay; watching Chris Stewart hit in high leverage situations is not confidence inspiring.
These playoff-caliber recaps are lost on a pedestrian team.
When the beat writer is criticizing your moves, that can’t be a good sign. Remember, we all expected Snitker to not be retained, but then Coppygate happened. And no, game 2 is not too early to ask for your manager to be promoted to Special Assistant to Special Assistant Bobby Cox.
With that said, I sense some legitimate expectations that this team is talented enough to win every game. And that’s encouraging. Or the Phillies are just bad. Either one.
Bowman: “that was a product of the deciding to fill Flowers’ roster spot with a ninth reliever”
Stu, look at that!
That’s my new band name: The Product of the Deciding. We rock through and through.
Do yourself a favor and don’t look at Alex Wood’s line from last night.
Gotta sign a catcher, right?
Also, after Snit burnt Dansby, had Stewart gotten injured, Culberson would have moved from SS to C, Flaherty from 3B to SS, Freddie to 3B, Kakes to 1B, Bourjos to RF, Teheran to LF. Soooo…. why PR Culberson for Dansby?
Snitker isn’t doing himself any favors with these idiotic moves. But somehow I prefer his brand of old-school stupid to Gabe Kapler out-foxing himself trying to play 4-dimensional chess with his bullpen. If you’re going to be dumb, at least don’t be pretentious about it.
I really don’t like to second guess the manager (certainly less so the older I get). Mangers have very difficult jobs, much of which is invisible to the public.
But as several of us noted at the time, the double switch made no sense. Although you can’t know whether it would have made a difference in the outcome, it sure would have been better to see Swanson up second in the 11th instead of Carle.
I’m with Sean Q on Kapler. Phillies games will be interminable
No roster move yet, so hopefully Suzuki only has a bruise.
Ravin up, Brothers down. Morris DFA’ed. Suzuki out til Tuesday. Culberson backup catcher.
One has to wonder if Morris boned someone’s daughter.
I thought it was overly cautious to carry the third catcher on the opening day roster. After all, how likely is it that a catcher gets injured and must leave a game in the middle?
Well, so far, every night. So isn’t it strange that they’re now going with one? Maybe they assume that lightning won’t strike three times in the same place.
@2
For Chelsea read Kelsey.
She’s still quite badly hurt and no notice of this happening was on last night’s broadcast. Do we care?
@14 That’s just to take him off the 40 man I believe. If he passes through waivers, he’ll just be status quo.
@14 – Agreed; its as though he has the opposite of the pictures.
Someone clever should come up with a name for it for the glossary (the guy whose performance in the minors would suggest MLB consideration, but is continually passed over).
He eventually got his shot, but I remember feeling this way about Chuck James in 2006 when (after a cup of coffee in 2005) they started him in Richmond and we were forced to watch Kim Jong-Il, Kyle Davies, and John Thompson get lit up for the first few months in Atlanta.
@18 – How about an Acuna? (too soon?)
Akeel’ed?
You guys know they can designate someone, sign Eddie Perez to a one day contract and “call him up” from his roll as bullpen coach, right?
Carrying this many pitchers is stupid
Are you drunk again Sam? Lol, Eddie Perez isn’t the bullpen coach anymore. Nobody is talking about catchers, we were discussing Akeel Morris. He isn’t anything special but he is better than some of the guys currently in the bullpen.
The Phillies might be a decent offensive team this season but their pitching staff sucks.
Arrieta and Nola may well be better than any of our starters. After that…
Our announcers are so bad. Get some new points of conversation, please.
When your starters struggle to go 5 IP, the Braves have to carry this many relievers. We can’t throw strikes, too many deep counts, etc.
Dansby would have scored if he tried.
Edit: Sac fly so it worked out.
I know a game and a half doesn’t mean anything, but goodness it would be awesome if Dansby turned out to be who we all hoped.
Dansby plays with a lot of emotion, and this is completely subjective, but he looks like a different player this year, even when he went 0-fer on OD.
I don’t care. I like him, and I still think he’s going to be good.
We are so lucky. We really don’t deserve this.
You’re doing Sabermetrics wrong, Kapler.
Snit has been tossed 2 out of 3 games. He’s realizing he’s more valuable absence than present.
Can Snitker protest this?
Philly fans coining “Gabermetrics” as a description of all this absolutely needs to take on as a nation ridicule of Gabe Kapler. And we’re getting a front row seat.
Ball don’t lie
Snit was right on that one. No excuse for the umps there.
And how embarrassing for Kapler.
Trying to make a pitching change without having anyone warming up is something I can’t say I’ve ever seen before.
I almost feel sorry for Kapler. Almost.
Announcers are comparing Kingery to Marcus Giles, another player who is in the Akeel Morris territory of not getting an opportunity fans think he deserves.
Acuna in right will be fantastic. that’s two balls tonight already.
This new pitcher probably is going to have to take one for the team for the Phillies and eat some innings regardless of how he pitches.
Phils are off tomorrow too anyway.
Ryan Flaherty is endearing.
Been a long while since I’ve watched the Braves on TV. What’s Ender Inciarte doing with Glenn Hubbard’s beard?
McCarthy’s 2 seamer moves a lot.
Small sample size alert:
Freeman has been on base 2 out of 3 times…and his OBP actually dropped.
There’s an industrial-league softball catcher in the back of the Braves clubhouse ready to go in case of injury, just like the emergency goalie for the Blackhawks.
I like Tucker a lot.
This is rather enjoyable.
Markakis can go away when Acuna gets here. Keep Tucker in the lineup.
OK, after a couple of innings, there’s a lot of beards in the lineup. Maybe that’s why Acuna was sent down; he’s not old enough for facial hair?
Really cool to see Winkler healthy and performing well.
Kakes’ beard is weird too. Does Albies have a beard?
Flaherty is doing his best to make the Phillies regret letting him go.
Albies has facial hair on his chin.
Phillies 2B with a literal Ole’ on that grounder. He tried to field it like it was a throw to second by the catcher. That was a new and novel technique, and unlikely to be recommended in the future.
Why did they just dim the lights when the Phillies reliever came in? Is this baseball in 2018? No sir, I don’t like it, don’t like it at all.
Albies’ beard doesn’t connect, but his bat sure does.
57 — it’s where they chop in the dark with their cell phones out.
Good point; if you’re going to shift on the pull hitter, the pitcher really shouldn’t throw strikes away.
59 – sounds like a good way to send a cell phone flying. Must be sponsored by AT&T.
Fearless prediction: a position player will pitch for the Phillies tonight.
They should play Yakkity Sax over the speakers.
I was hoping that we could get something for Markakis but it doesn’t look like it. I’m okay with letting him walk or putting him on the bench when Acuna comes up. We got a guy for basically nothing in AAA (Carera) who could easily duplicate Nick’s numbers this year, not to mention Tucker.
We are a quality slide from being 3-0 over a team many pundits picked to finish significantly ahead of us in the same division. That’s nice.
I would like to see Josh Ravin race against the Freeze. I hear he can fly. Looking at Ravin’s career stats I’m afraid we’ll be saying nevermore very soon.
Angels trade catcher Carlos Perez to the Braves for infielder Ryan Schimpf.
I think Perez will probably be DFA’d in a few days when Suzuki is back to clear another 40 man spot.
Recap up.